epigenetics control aging and cancer...,

northwestern | Epigenetic age is a new way to measure your biological age. When your biological (epigenetic) age is older than your chronological age, you are at increased risk for getting and dying of cancer, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.

And the bigger the difference between the two ages, the higher your risk of dying of cancer.

“This could become a new early warning sign of cancer,” said senior author Dr. Lifang Hou, who led the study. “The discrepancy between the two ages appears to be a promising tool that could be used to develop an early detection blood test for cancer.”

Hou is chief of cancer epidemiology and prevention in preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and co-leader of the cancer prevention program at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.

“People who are healthy have a very small difference between their epigenetic/biological age and chronological age,” Hou said. “People who develop cancer have a large difference and people who die from cancer have a difference even larger than that. Our evidence showed a clear trend.”

A person’s epigenetic age is calculated based on an algorithm measuring 71 blood DNA methylation markers that could be modified by a person’s environment, including environmental chemicals, obesity, exercise and diet. This test is not commercially available but is currently being studied by academic researchers, including a team at Northwestern.

latin american doctors don't think zika is causing microencephaly...,

 

gmwatch |  A report from the Argentine doctors’ organisation, Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Towns,[1] challenges the theory that the Zika virus epidemic in Brazil is the cause of the increase in the birth defect microcephaly among newborns.  

The increase in this birth defect, in which the baby is born with an abnormally small head and often has brain damage, was quickly linked to the Zika virus by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. However, according to the Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Towns, the Ministry failed to recognise that in the area where most sick people live, a chemical larvicide that produces malformations in mosquitoes was introduced into the drinking water supply in 2014. This poison, Pyriproxyfen, is used in a State-controlled programme aimed at eradicating disease-carrying mosquitoes. 

The Physicians added that the Pyriproxyfen is manufactured by Sumitomo Chemical, a Japanese "strategic partner" ofMonsanto. Pyriproxyfen is a growth inhibitor of mosquito larvae, which alters the development process from larva to pupa to adult, thus generating malformations in developing mosquitoes and killing or disabling them. It acts as an insect juvenile hormone or juvenoid, and has the effect of inhibiting the development of adult insect characteristics (for example, wings and mature external genitalia) and reproductive development. It is an endocrine disruptor and is teratogenic (causes birth defects), according to the Physicians.

The Physicians commented: “Malformations detected in thousands of children from pregnant women living in areas where the Brazilian state added Pyriproxyfen to drinking water are not a coincidence, even though the Ministry of Health places a direct blame on the Zika virus for this damage.”

They also noted that Zika has traditionally been held to be a relatively benign disease that has never before been associated with birth defects, even in areas where it infects 75% of the population.

astonishing levels of transatlantic presstitution obfuscating the cause of the pinhead epidemic

WaPo |  Brazil on Friday reported a nearly 50 percent jump in cases of dengue fever reported over a three-week period in January, a worrying finding because the disease is carried by the same mosquito that spreads the Zika virus.

“This is a very strong indication that the Zika cases are increasing and that the combat against the mosquito is not being efficient,” said Marcos Lago, an associate professor of infectious diseases and pediatrics at the State University of Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil has been panicked by thousands of suspected cases of the birth defect microcephaly, which the government has linked to an epidemic of the Zika virus that began last year.

“We will probably have a dengue epidemic,” Lago said. “And this dengue epidemic will be accompanied by a Zika epidemic.”

amazing the lengths gone to preserve plausible deniability for monsanto...,

guardian |  Mukwaya says he was astonished to hear of what was in Uganda a pretty harmless disease evolving into a potential global monster almost overnight on another continent. “I was very surprised by what has happened in Brazil,” he said. “Here it causes only a mild fever. I did not expect it to be that dangerous. It would be extraordinary if it really could spread from mosquito to human to human.”

He said had been bitten several times by mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus but, like most Ugandans, had no symptoms. “In Brazil,” he said, “the mosquito that can spread Zika is Aedes aegypti formosus. In Uganda, it is Aedes africanus. Both carry the same viruses, including dengue, yellow fever and chikungunya.

“What do we know about Aedes africanus? It bites mostly at altitudes of 18 to 24 metres, it lays 300 eggs at a time, it likes a temperature of 26C-27C, it prefers forest to open land, and, like other mosquitoes, it is attracted to alcohol. How the virus was transmitted to Latin America, and how it might develop or mutate, is just not known.”

Nor have there been any reported cases of birth defects in Uganda. “We do haveaegypti [mosquitoes] here, but I think we are protected. It does not regularly feed on man here, but on small animals like rodents, and cats and dogs. I believe we are safe. The mosquito carries both yellow fever and Zika, but it normally never bites humans and when it does it leads only to a short mild fever that many people do not even notice.”

Zika infection may be unknown in Uganda but the forest is a reservoir of disease. Despite this, it attracts its share of tourists and was once visited by the US president Jimmy Carter, who came to spot birds such as the rare crested crane. In the 65 years since the tower was built, UVRI researchers have isolated hundreds of arboviruses – diseases spread by insects and ticks.

“Most of them are potentially deadly,” says Mukwaya, who helped isolate the yellow fever virus in the 1970s and has had a mosquito sub-species named after him. “We do not know what else is in there. If you want to study little-known flora and fauna, you come to Uganda.”

shikimate inhibition by roundup (glyphosate)

mdpi |  Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup^®, is the most popular herbicide used worldwide. The industry asserts it is minimally toxic to humans, but here we argue otherwise. Residues are found in the main foods of the Western diet, comprised primarily of sugar, corn, soy and wheat. Glyphosate's inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes is an overlooked component of its toxicity to mammals. CYP enzymes play crucial roles in biology, one of which is to detoxify xenobiotics. Thus, glyphosate enhances the damaging effects of other food borne chemical residues and environmental toxins. Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body. Here, we show how interference with CYP enzymes acts synergistically with disruption of the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids by gut bacteria, as well as impairment in serum sulfate transport. Consequences are most of the diseases and conditions associated with a Western diet, which include gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. We explain the documented effects of glyphosate and its ability to induce disease, and we show that glyphosate is the “textbook example” of exogenous semiotic entropy: the disruption of homeostasis by environmental toxins.

the shikimate pathway

wikipedia |  The shikimate pathway (shikimic acid pathway) is a seven step metabolic route used by bacteria, fungi, algae, parasites and plants for the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids (phenylalanine, tyrosine, andtryptophan). This pathway is not found in animals, hence the products of this pathway represent essential amino acids that must be obtained from the animal's diet. However, this pathway is found with microbes that live within animals in the gut microbiome.

The first enzyme involved is the shikimate kinase, an enzyme that catalyzes the ATP-dependent phosphorylation of shikimate to form shikimate 3-phosphate.^[1] Shikimate 3-phosphate is then coupled withphosphoenol pyruvate to give 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate via the enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate (EPSP) synthase.